March 1: St. David, patron of Wales and newborns.
March 2: Blessed Charles the Good, patron of counts and crusaders.
March 6: Sts. Felicity and Perpetua, patrons of widows, death of children.
March 7: St. Thomas Aquinas, patron of Catholic schools.
March 8: St. John of God, patron of the sick, nurses, hospitals and booksellers.
March 9: St. Frances of Rome, patron of motorists and widows.
March 9: St. Dominic Savio, patron of choirboys and the falsely accused.
March 12: St. Gregory the Great, patron of church music.
March 14: St. Matilda, patron of parents of large families.
March 17: St. Joseph of Arimathea, patron of funeral directors.
March 19: St. Joseph, patron of the Universal Church.
March 21: St. Benedict, patron against poison.
March 22: St. Isidore, patron of farmers.
March 22: St. Nicholas of Flue, patron of councilmen.
March 23: St. Turibius of Mongrovejo, patron of native rights.
March 24: St. Gabriel, patron of telecommunications and diplomats.
March 24: St. Catherine of Sweden, invoked against miscarriages.
March 25: St. Dismas, patron of convicted prisoners.
March 28: St. Guntramnus, patron of repentant murderers and divorced.

Now that St. John Paul II and St. John XXIII have been canonized, the Vatican Secretary of State has no excuse to continue to stall the beatification of Ven. Pius XII, of blessed, holy and happy memory. The sooner they canonize him, the sooner the polemic will dissipate.

"Since they are signs of a consecrated life, religious habits should be simple and modest, at once poor and becoming. They should meet the requirements of health and be suited to the circumstances of time and place as well as to the services required by those who wear them. Habits of men and women which do not correspond to those norms are to be changed."

-Vatican II, Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life (Perfectae Caritatis), 17.

There are lots of photos of President Kennedy on his way to or from Mass at St. Edward's in Palm Beach, always holding his prayer book.

Kennedy attended Mass at different times, that way, people
didn’t know when he would show up and the church wouldn’t be overrun
with crowds. Some of the ladies, however, would attend every Mass when
the President was in town to improve their odds of catching a glimpse.

"Spotted at mass at St. Agnes today: three birettas in the sanctuary and
rose-colored vestments with blue and gold orphreys; in the nave at least
two bow ties; a man in a three-piece suit; a woman in a big Kentucky
Derby-style hat; mantillas; one elderly man with pocket watch, fob and
chain on his waistcoat; a girl in Converse sneakers and leggings; a
woman in a bright pink fuzzy angora sweater, and a young matron in a
flowered full 1950s circle skirt with crinoline. The mass music was
Mozart with full orchestra in the loft and choral soloists; the
architecture 18th century Austrian, the mass 1970 but in Latin, and the
rubrics and vesture closer to 1570. And it was all timeless and
heavenly."

The people were tired of greatness, prestige and words. They turned to this - the glorification of the ugly. Some blame Vatican II, but the truth is it began long before that.

There are many, more poignant examples than these two illustrated above.

Notice the cretinous faces?

In North America the ugly in liturgical art came from - and continues to come from - St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. Sigh.

The artist? His name was Frank Kacmarcik.

He was an avant garde, never married artist from St. Paul, Minnesota. The Benedictines of St. John's Abbey fell in love with him and later named him an "oblate."

A strong critic of his oddball art was Vatican II peritus Monsignor R.G. Bandas, who grew up in the shadow of the Abbey in Silver Lake, Minnesota. He had their number.

Bandas described the modernistic productions as "pictoral horrors" and "visual blasphemies," pictured as though the saints, Christ and Mary were suffering from abject despair, elephantiasis, leprosy or a deforming arthritis, all contrary to the teachings of the liturgy that Christ "reigned triumphantly" from the cross and that the Blessed Mother is "all beautiful" (tota pulchra).

Photo taken at the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota (incidentally, the same seminary that Archbishop Sheen graduated from in 1919, and where he frequently returned to preach retreats).

I was privileged to know all three of these eminent men of learning and holiness. Nicest guys you could ever imagine. Princes among men.

I can still remember Mons. Dulac giving lowly old me the pax at Solemn High Mass when I was an altar boy.

These men loved the priesthood of Jesus Christ. They loved the Church. They were very good at being priests. They also gave their lives to the College of St. Thomas (today the University of St. Thomas). They believed firmly in Catholic education.

May their reward be heaven. We, their spiritual sons and heirs, continue their legacy. They gave their lives for the salvation of souls.

Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston had this to say of him: "I believe Bishop James Edward Walsh is the finest missionary to go forth from America in my lifetime."

Bishop Walsh spent his life as a missioner in China. At age 28 he was named superior of the Maryknoll Fathers in China. At age 36 he was consecrated bishop on Shangchuan Island, where St. Francis Xavier, the glorious Apostle to the Indies, died in 1552.

After the Communists took control of China in 1948, Bishop Walsh spent twelve years in solitary confinement in a Communist prison. His is a precious witness. I wish Maryknoll would publish in books the papers of Fr. Price and the other earlier missionaries. Their lives were fascinating beyond belief.

"So he sounded the alarm, loudly and repeatedly, inveighing against the
Winnipeg Statement and all its pomps and works. By the 1990s, one heard
jokes that there was no subject — from divine revelation to recipe books
— that Msgr. Foy could not relate to the Winnipeg Statement. His dogged
fidelity prevailed, and in 2008, the Canadian bishops consigned the
Winnipeg Statement to history with a new document celebrating Humanae Vitae’s 40th
anniversary, Liberating Potential, which called upon Catholics to
“discover or rediscover” the wisdom of Paul VI and the Church’s
tradition."

"For decades he has fearlessly articulated and defended the teachings of
the Church – in a time of moral and doctrinal chaos in the Church in
Canada. He is best known for his untiring defense of Catholic teachings
on marriage and family life, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae. His efforts have earned him a papal commendation and the Pro-life Man of the Year Award."